www.myovdo.comhttp://myovdo.com
Make Your Own Video Training AcademyTue, 20 Feb 2018 17:13:06 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.5Got Marketing Challenges? Try Videohttp://myovdo.com/got-marketing-challenges-try-video/
http://myovdo.com/got-marketing-challenges-try-video/#respondFri, 09 Feb 2018 16:11:32 +0000http://myovdo.com/?p=2186In the immortal words of pretty much every business coach and motivational speaker ever, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get… blah blah blah”. Yeah, you know what we’re trying to say. So if you’ve been using the same marketing tactics for a while and not seen much in the way […]

]]>In the immortal words of pretty much every business coach and motivational speaker ever, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get… blah blah blah”. Yeah, you know what we’re trying to say.

So if you’ve been using the same marketing tactics for a while and not seen much in the way of return, perhaps it’s time to change things up a bit. Step out of your comfort zone. Go out on a limb. Make some videos.

Video is kinda unique, maybe even the sharpest tool in the marketing box. Done right, it can get all those synapses sparking and all those neural pathways connecting in ways that other types of content might struggle to manage by themselves. Come to think of it, we should have done this as a video…

Let me try and convince you with a list:

Three letters: S.E.O. An engaging video can keep visitors on your site long enough to score some serious G-points (that’s Google, btw). Points mean higher organic rankings. Put your videos on YouTube – because Google owns YouTube – and the G-bots will be looking out for keywords in your video title, description and tags. Turn on the captions as well and woah, it’s all getting a bit S.E.riO.us! Upload that video to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as well, and your footprint suddenly becomes… er… Big Foot.

Credibility. Video proves you are in fact a real hoooman bean, not just words on a page, or twenty years older than your photo would suggest. If you’re selling more than just widgets by the million, it’s important for your customers to see whether your words and your body language match up. A video can go a long way to establishing the trust factor.

One-upmanship. While your competitors are moaning on about not liking the sound of their voice on recordings, or doing what they’ve always done and getting what they’ve always got, you can be picking off their customers like a kid picking the top off a jaffa cake. And all because you’re making videos and they’re not.

Brevity.

Emotion – those synapses and neural pathways I mentioned earlier. Video is like the perfect blend of emotional stimuli creating a sensory explosion in the mind. Take a liberal slosh of storytelling, a dash of music, and smidgen of graphics and a dash of text, blend together in an editing app to create a Michelin starred masterpiece to suit every palette.

Show ‘n’ tell. Not just for school kids. If you’ve got a proposition that words on a page or a snapshot in time just doesn’t do justice, press that red button and capture every movement in glorious technicolour.

So there you have it. Give your marketing efforts a new lease of life with video. It may not happen overnight, but this could be the new tool in the box that gives you the results that the stuff you’ve always done, doesn’t.

Our video training workshops will show you how you can bypass the professionals to take control of your own video marketing. With just one mobile device, we’ll show you how to plan, shoot, edit and upload your own videos. Get in touch to find out more.

]]>http://myovdo.com/got-marketing-challenges-try-video/feed/0How To Make Videos With Your Smartphone – Cheat Sheethttp://myovdo.com/make-videos-smartphone-cheat-sheet/
http://myovdo.com/make-videos-smartphone-cheat-sheet/#respondWed, 31 Jan 2018 13:10:00 +0000http://myovdo.com/?p=2182So you want to start making social videos? Great, but how do you get going? Spielberg didn’t just pick up a camera one day and make a blockbuster. No, he had a little help along the way. So that’s what we’re going to give you – a few hacks we’ve learned during our 20 years […]

]]>So you want to start making social videos? Great, but how do you get going? Spielberg didn’t just pick up a camera one day and make a blockbuster. No, he had a little help along the way. So that’s what we’re going to give you – a few hacks we’ve learned during our 20 years as video producers to kickstart your directorial debut.

CHEAT #1: You only need one device for filming AND editing, and you probably already own it. Pretty much all smart devices now have HD cameras and the capacity to run and editing app.

CHEAT #2: Use a tripod. No one will thank you for making them feel sea sick. You’ll also need a mount to fix your device to the tripod.

CHEAT #3: Use a microphone. A big differentiator of amateur and high quality video is the sound quality. Get a tie clip mic that plugs into your headphone socket here: myovdo.com/shop.

CHEAT #4: Write a script or bullet points so you know what to say. Keep it short, succinct and make every word count.

CHEAT #5: Find a suitable location – somewhere quiet, with a background relevant to the subject of your video and with plenty of natural light.

CHEAT #6: Use windows as light sources, not backdrops. You’ll become a silhouette if you try to film yourself in front of a window.

CHEAT #9: Make sure your device is fully charged and has plenty of storage space before you start.

CHEAT #10: Once you’re in position in front of the camera, check the background to make sure there’s nothing ‘growing’ out of your head.

CHEAT #11: Camera height is important – it should be at eye-level, not looking up your nose!

CHEAT #12: When presenting to camera, think about the 5Ps: Preparation, Posture, Pace, Positivity and Practice!

BONUS CHEAT: Invest in some video training – give us a shout!

For a step-by-step guide to making your own videos for web and social media, grab yourself a copy of our book, Make Your Own Videos, available at myovdo.com/handbook. The book goes into more details about planning, shooting, editing and uploading videos using just one mobile device.

]]>http://myovdo.com/make-videos-smartphone-cheat-sheet/feed/0How To Integrate Video Into Your Marketing Strategy in 2018http://myovdo.com/integrate-video-marketing-strategy-2018/
http://myovdo.com/integrate-video-marketing-strategy-2018/#respondWed, 31 Jan 2018 12:26:23 +0000http://myovdo.com/?p=2174Video is big news on social and it’s showing no signs of going away any time soon. The Zuckermeister himself has said that by 2020 he wants all Facebook content to be video. According to a comprehensive analysis by Vidyard, businesses produced an average of 38 videos in 2017, that’s nine more than the previous year. […]

]]>Video is big news on social and it’s showing no signs of going away any time soon. The Zuckermeister himself has said that by 2020 he wants all Facebook content to be video.

According to a comprehensive analysis by Vidyard, businesses produced an average of 38 videos in 2017, that’s nine more than the previous year.

Why? Because they’re seeing a greater return from video than from other forms of content. So the question is, are you going to make 2018 your year of video? If the answer’s yes, here are 5 ways to integrate video into your existing marketing strategy this year.

1 GOALS

What targets and goals have you already set for your business this year? Revisit your list and think about where you might be able to use video to help you achieve them. For example, if you’ve set a goal of selling more widgets, consider making widget review or explainer videos to give customers more clarity on what the widget does. If your goal is to increase traffic to your website, try linking 10-second taster videos on your social channels with longer videos on your website.

2 SOCIAL

Social media loves video, so consider making some of your scheduled content as video rather than articles. For example, think about a weekly roundup video on LinkedIn, a hints and tips series on Facebook and behind the scenes clips on Instagram.

3 EVENTS

Do you have any events coming up – either as an attendee or organiser? As an attendee grab some clips on your phone then do a review style video. As an organiser, capture all the main moments including responses from guests. These are great for your email marketing campaigns and can be used to promote future events.

4 EMAIL

If you send out regular mail shots or newsletters, add some short videos clips to vary the content. A personal message, a customer testimonial, a product review, news about industry developments or awards you’ve won, or a how-to video can help to increase click-throughs.

5 REFRESH

Refresh existing video content on a regular basis to give visitors a reason to come back to your website or social channels. Your company overview video might be out of date, your industry stats might have changed, or your customers may have new FAQs you need to answer. Keeping on top of this will let your customers know you’re on the ball.

And if you’re thinking this is going to cost you a fortune in video production fees, there is another way: learn how to make your own videos using your smartphone. It’s easier than you think. Visit myovdo.com to start your journey as a smart video maker.

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http://myovdo.com/make-video-vs-professional-video/#respondTue, 07 Nov 2017 18:26:18 +0000http://myovdo.com/?p=2140The post MAKE YOUR OWN VIDEO vs PROFESSIONAL VIDEO? appeared first on www.myovdo.com.
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When we launched Make Your Own Video Training Academy, a small number of people didn’t get it. They wanted to know how, as video producers, we weren’t going to put ourselves out of business by teaching people how to do it themselves.

Our answer? There’s a need for both.

Professional video production is overkill for small single-use social videos, while smartphone videos just won’t cut it when you’re after the wow factor. So here’s a useful guide to help you work out when to call your own shots and when to bring in the professionals.

Whether you want to learn how to make your own videos or bring in the professionals (or both), we can help you. Visit www.myovdo.com or email us info@myovdo.com.

Written by Ruth Duggal, video producer and trainer at Make Your Own Video Training Academy

Social media has changed the way video makers must plan, shoot, edit and upload videos. Not only should we be making more, but every video needs to work harder to catch the attention of our viewers. One way to do this is to fill as much available space in a news feed as possible.

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

Viewing windows are changing in size.

The traditional dimension of a video screen is rectangular in a horizontal aspect (aka 16:9), which is fine if your audience is viewing your content on a horizontal screen. The mobile revolution, however, means more content is being consumed on the go… and mostly with the phone held vertically. Expecting viewers to turn their device to fill the screen with your 16:9 video is a tall order.

Because of this, social media channels are changing the size and dimensions of their viewing windows to accommodate viewing habits. Apps such as Snapchat cater exclusively for vertical video (aka 9:16), and if you know that’s where your target audience spends most of their time, then vertical video is exactly what you should be making. We will dedicate more words to vertical video in another post.

For the time being, the happy medium of video dimension is SQUARE (aka 1:1). Instagram was the square pioneer, the advantage being that the mobile viewing experience is the same regardless of how you hold your device. Other channels such as Facebook have adapted the dimensions of their viewing window to accommodate square posts. This means more ‘real estate’ in the news feed, resulting in more eye-catching content.

How to make square videos with a rectangular device

Photo by Eaters Collective on Unsplash

We recently made a series of videos for a garment printing company, using an iPad. They wanted to use their videos on their website and in their newsletters, which would be hosted on their YouTube channel. So we made their videos in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Whilst we were making their videos, we also shot a behind-the-scenes (BTS) video about how we made their videos. We knew we wanted to share this on YouTube and Facebook, so we needed to end up with a rectangular and a square video without having to shoot the video twice.

Here’s how we did it:

We planned what content we wanted to capture and wrote a script using one of our own templates – what we call our Storyboards.

We took an extra camera person and filming kit along to shoot the BTS video. We directed him to frame all the important action in the middle of the screen.

We edited the rectangular video in an editing app as normal. The end result was a 16:9 video which we saved in our device’s gallery and uploaded to YouTube.

Then we downloaded a video cropping app, and from within the app we selected the BTS video, which opened in the app. Using the square (1:1) frame positioned in the middle of the rectangular video, we then cropped the video. This removed the left and right edges, leaving us with just the action in the centre as a perfect square. We then saved this version to the gallery and uploaded to Facebook.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

If you know you want to upload your video to more than one channel, plan ahead so you don’t have to film and edit the video twice.

When shooting, frame all of the important action – such as people, objects, activities etc – in the MIDDLE of the screen.

Edit the footage as normal in a 16:9 editing app. If you want to add text, only add it to the centre and make sure it doesn’t creep into the areas you’ll be cropping off.

Save the 16:9 version and upload it to YouTube. Then crop the video square using a cropping app. We like Crop & Trim Video and Square Video for Android and Vont for iOS. There are other cropping apps available from the Play Store or App Store. Save the cropped video and upload it to Facebook/ Instagram.

Written by Ruth Duggal, Director & Trainer of Make Your Own Video Training Academy.

]]>http://myovdo.com/square-videos-make-using/feed/0“ZERO TO CONFIDENT IN 2 DAYS!”http://myovdo.com/zero-confident-2-days/
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 21:00:46 +0000http://myovdo.com/?p=1954This is exactly what one of our learners said he’d become by the end of our 2-day video training workshop.

This is exactly what one of our learners said he’d become by the end of our 2-day video training workshop. It was music to our ears.

Last week we held our first official video training workshop in Birmingham. The venue was the uber cool Alpha Works, with fantastic facilities and a great view over the city. Our delegates arrived with their mobile devices and buckets of enthusiasm, but very little idea about how they could start to grow their brands with video.

On day one, after we’d shown them how to assemble their filming kit, we sent our learners out to shoot a 10 second video – with no guidance. We wanted them to have a benchmark of how far they’d travelled by the end of the two days. We have to confess, it gave us a strange sort of pleasure watching them squirming around outside their comfort zone, knowing that in just a few hours their skill and confidence levels would have increased ten-fold.

The rest of the morning was taken up with planning – getting to know their audience, devising a video strategy and writing scripts using our Storyboard templates. We then looked at the practical aspects of shooting a video such as locations, lighting, sound and framing. The afternoon was all about filming. It gave us such a sense of pride to see our learners throwing themselves into it and ratcheting up their creativity. One delegate asked the rest of the group if they would do a spot of acting, while she contorted herself onto a windowsill to get the angle she needed. A fit of the giggles later, and she had her shot.

Apparently our frivolity roused intrigue around the building, with people popping in to our room to find out what was going on.

The pace of day two was a little more relaxed, with our learners getting their heads around the principles of editing. We know that editing is the part that some people fear, especially the self-confessed technophobes. Whilst people learn at different speeds, we found that our approach suited every delegate regardless of their levels of technical confidence and aptitude. They were all, without exception, able to shoot, edit and upload a complete video.

At the end of day two, our learners took turns to show their videos on the big screen – a proud moment for them and for us. It’s important to us that as many delegates as possible retain their learning and put it into practice straight away, so we set them the MYOVDO 5 Day Challenge – making a different type of video every day for five days. We can’t wait to see their results.

More importantly, we want to follow their video marketing journey over a period of time so we can see how their reach and engagement increases as a result of making videos.

If you’d like to learn more about our video making workshops, visit www.myovdo.com/workshops or email us on info@myovdo.com.

One reason we like video so much is that it’s not a one-trick pony. In fact, video is one of the most versatile additions to your marketing toolkit. The days of having to put all your videos on Youtube are over (although do still put them there for SEO and linking purposes). Heck, we can still remember when the only way to show a client their video was by putting it on VHS!! Thankfully we’ve all moved on.

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of online channels that support video, so for the purposes of this blog we’ll class them all as one of the ten. There are, however, plenty of other platforms that aren’t social media channels. Let’s have a look at some of them.

1. Websites

For maximum benefit, every page of your website should contain video. You might want an overview video on the home page, personal intro videos on your team page, a company history video on your about page, explainer videos on your product or service pages, how-to videos, review videos, testimonial videos on other pages. Despite what we said above, host them on a video site such as YouTube, Vimeo or even Facebook and share the links to your website so they’re not clogging up your own server space. Update them regularly to encourage return visits.

2. Social Media Channels

As we said above, there are hundreds but you’ll only want to use the ones your target audience uses unless you like making work for yourself. Make a note of the video styles and formats that do best on individual channels, such as square videos on Facebook and Instagram, behind the scenes videos on Instagram and Pinterest, documentary-style videos on Vimeo, serious business stuff on LinkedIn and pretty much anything on YouTube. Upload videos natively to each channel if the channel allows, otherwise host it on another channel and share the link from there. Social media channels constantly evolve so stay informed about video trends on each channel you use.

3. Email

Emails with ‘VIDEO’ in the subject line have a greater open rate than those without, according to some studies. Videos are large files, however, and usually exceed the size of attachment you’re allowed to send so you can’t email the actual video. The best way is to host it on a site such as YouTube and email the link rather than the video itself. An ugly link in an email body doesn’t look very appealing though, so it’s advisable to create a thumbnail image or gif, and hyperlink that to your YouTube video. Keep checking the blog because eventually we’ll write one on how to do that.

4. Newsletters

If you’re using a newsletter manager such as Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor or other, they all allow email to be embedded. Again, you’ll need to host your videos on YouTube or other video sharing channel and link your video from there to your newsletter. You’ll have the choice to use the thumbnail image generated by your host channel or to upload your own image or gif. Newsletter videos are great for sharing small pieces of information and are more dynamic and appealing than large blocks of text.

6. Blogs

Adding videos to blog posts is a great way to make them more appealing, especially to visitors who are instantly turned off by a wall of text. The secret to maximising success is to let visitors know it’s there before they’ve even clicked; for some it might be their reason for clicking. Add the word ‘VIDEO’ to the blog’s title, then insert the video close to the top of the post so visitors don’t have to scroll miles down to find it. It’s a good idea to add some text to tell viewers what it’s about and to summarise the key points. You may also want to transcribe the dialogue into text and post that beneath the video.

6. Event Listing Sites

If you’re promoting an event through a listing site such as Eventbrite, Choose Your Event or sector-specific sites, they usually allow you to add videos. Again, this can be more appealing than text or images. You can create an invitation video especially for your event, highlights videos of previous similar events to show what attendees can expect, or testimonial videos from previous events. Host your videos on YouTube and share the link to the event site.

7. Forums

If you have a niche interest or work in a specific sector, you might follow or contribute to forums. The forum may allow you to share or embed videos into your posts. This might be a simple case of copying the video’s YouTube URL and pasting it into the post, or there may be a more specific way of doing it on your particular forum. How-to, explainer or expert videos will all be appropriate types to post in forums.

8. Meetings and Presentations

Video can be a great addition to a meeting or presentation if it makes a point in a more visual or emotional way than simply speaking. It also gives the presenter a break for a few minutes. Videos can easily be embedded into PowerPoint or Keynote presentations. If the meeting is between two or three people, it may suffice to play it from a tablet or laptop, but if you’re presenting to a room you may be using a large screen or projector. If this is the case, it’s best to shoot your videos in the highest resolution possible so the quality translates to the big screen.

9. Conferences

Like in meetings and presentations, video can perk up stale slides no end. Be sure to speak with an AV technician as early as possible to find out what format to provide your videos in. Again, video quality if of utmost importance because conference screens can be huge and you want your video to look as sharp as possible.

10. USB Device or Screen In A Card

This is the modern day equivalent of sending VHS tapes. Snail mail has declined since we can now send most things through the ether, so it’s a pleasant surprise to receive something tangible through the actual post. Get some branded USB sticks – they come in all sorts of weird and wonderful forms these days – and load your video onto it. Order a device with a large enough capacity for your video or videos. When you send it, be sure to include a note that informs the recipient there’s a video on the device. You can also buy promotional cards with small screens inside, onto which you can load a video via a USB cable from your computer. These are a lot pricier than USB devices, so save them for your special customers.

Written by Ruth Duggal and Glyn Allen
Make Your Own Video Training Academy

]]>http://myovdo.com/10-ways-share-videos/feed/030 TYPES OF VIDEOS TO HELP TURN VIEWERS INTO CUSTOMERShttp://myovdo.com/30-types-videos-help-turn-viewers-customers/
http://myovdo.com/30-types-videos-help-turn-viewers-customers/#respondMon, 04 Sep 2017 17:27:30 +0000http://myovdo.com/?p=1784The post 30 TYPES OF VIDEOS TO HELP TURN VIEWERS INTO CUSTOMERS appeared first on www.myovdo.com.
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One of the most common questions we get asked by people starting their video marketing journey is, “What do I make videos about?”. At Make Your Own Video Training Academy we have a solution: we have created templates for different types of videos. We call them our Storyboards. These are simple 5-step guides that can be adapted to suit any type of business and any message.

In our handbook you’ll find five storyboards for the most popular types of promotional videos. We are also constantly creating more templates, which are available to purchase from our website (www.myovdo.com/storyboards).

We thought it would be useful to put together a list of more types of videos you might want to make as a business owner or employee. As a suggestion of when and how you might use them, we’ve categorised them into the five stages of a customer’s journey: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action, Retention.

AWARENESS – videos to make prospective customers aware of your brand, product, service or offer

1. Overview Video

A short video giving the headlines of what you can offer.Keep it simple – don’t be tempted to cram too much information into one video, and stay away from the finer details at this stage. Focus on the benefits rather than the features of your offering.

2. Commercial

A 30 second commercial might be all you need to raise awareness in your product or service. There are plenty of opportunities to screen your commercial online – through YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn advertising.

3. Trailer/ Highlights Video

As with a film trailer, you can get a lot of information across in a short video. A trailer can be useful for promoting an event or an experience such as a book or performance.

4. Culture Video

Every organisation has a culture, and often it’s the culture rather than the products that your customers identify with. Talk about your brand values and ethics and make sure you include the office dog!r performance.

5. Tour Video

Take your audience on a video tour. You might want to show off your office and introduce your team, or you might want to showcase a property you’re selling. A Tour video is the next best thing to being there.

6. Showreel

A Showreel video is usually set to music and captures the very best aspects of your offering. This could be short clips of your organisation in action, sound bites from happy customers, and clips of your products or services.

7. Explainer Video

Make individual videos that go into more details about your products or services. Remember that a customer of one product might not be a customer of another, so it’s important to make separate explainer videos and place them where your interested viewers are most likely to see them. Explain the features of your product/ service, and how users will benefit from them.

8. How-to Video

‘How To… is one of the most common YouTube search terms. If viewers are searching for a solution to a problem, help them out. Showing your prospective customers how to do something can establish you as an authority on your subject whilst making people more aware of your brand.

9. Expert Video

Establish yourself as the ‘go to’ expert in your field by explaining subjects, issues or concepts through video. Keep it short and avoid too much detail or jargon. A short video is more engaging than pages of text.

10. Process Video

Customers are usually interested in how things are made or how they work, so take them behind the scenes and show them your processes. Depending on what you do, it can sometimes be difficult for customers to see the value in your product or service, so a process video demonstrates how much time and effort you put in.

11. Hints & Tips Video

Demonstrate your knowledge of a particular subject or product by offering short ‘top tips’ videos. Free advice like this can increase your profile and encourage viewers to share on social media.

12. Product Demo Video

If you make or sell products, a short video explaining the features or a particular item can increase the chances of your viewer buying it. According to a recent survey by Google, 50% of internet users look for a video related to a product or service before visiting a store.

13. Team Introduction Video

As your prospects gain interest in your organisation, it may help them to learn more about the people behind the brand; after all, people buy from people as they say. Use video to introduce members of your team and throw in some quirky facts for authenticity. These are also useful for Email signatures and LinkedIn profiles.

14. Company History Video

Again, as your prospect dig deeper for information, they might be interested in how your organisation came about, especially if your story is unusual if you’ve overcome some major hurdles or you’ve experienced some noteworthy achievements.

15. Day In The Life Video

Follow a team member or even a client through a typical day, showing what they get up to, what it’s like to work in your organisation or how your product/ service makes a client’s working day more productive.

16. Behind The Scenes Video

Everyone wants to feel like they’re wearing that ‘Access All Areas’ badge. You can offer exclusive access by taking viewers behind the scenes of your brand, event or project.

DESIRE – you’ve won them over, now use these videos to show customers more details and provide useful information

17. Case Study Video

Tell the story of how your customers use your products or services, and the benefits they gain from it. Your customers will probably want to use the video on their website and social channels too, giving you more exposure.

18. Review Video

Review a product or service on behalf of someone else if you want to align yourself with another brand. For an impartial review of your own products or services, ask a customer or third party to do this on your behalf.

19. Testimonial Video

Soundbites from your customers about how great your brand, product or service is. Ask them to tell the story of what problem they faced before using your product/service, and how your product/service has now solved their problem and improved their life.

20. Vox Pop Video

These are usually spontaneous interviews with members of the public. They can be used to gather public opinions about certain subjects, or run quick polls.

21. Endorsement Video

These are filmed interviews or presented clips with carefully selected people who may influence the buying behaviour of your prospects. They could be partners, experts, service users, celebrities – anyone whose opinion is respected by your target audience.

ACTION – your prospects have become your customers, so use videos to give them useful support and information

22. FAQ Video

Turn the answers to your frequently asked questions into videos. It’s more personal than text on a web page and the next best thing to answering questions in person.

23. Instructional Video

If your product or service comes with specific instructions, make a video showing your customers how to use it.

24. Post-sale Support Video

Make videos that help your customers with maintenance and troubleshooting of your products or services.

25. Thank You Video

Add a personal touch by emailing a short ‘thank you for the business’ video, including details on how they can access further information and support, and news about other products or services that might interest them.

26. Special Message Video

Send seasonal greetings or other personalised messages in video form to make your customers feel valued.

27. Video Newsletter

Once you have an email address from either a prospect or a customer you can keep them up to date with your latest good news in video form via a mailshot. You can also tell them about other products or services you offer, or upcoming events.

28. Offers/ Competitions

Keep customers engaged by offering them exclusive deals, offers and competitions, emailed as a video link.

29. Showcase Video

Offer your latest products and services exclusively to your customers before anyone else sees them. A video is more personal than a plain text email.

30. Invitation Video

If you’re planning an event, send the invitation as a video instead of an image or text. If you have footage or images of previous similar events, include those to provide a flavour of what guests can expect.

We hope this list gives you some ideas of types of videos you can use at different stages of your customer’s journey. The order is just a suggestion – it’s up to you to experiment and see what works for your business. If you’d like a storyboard for any of these videos and you can’t find it on our website, drop us a line to info@myovdo.com and we’ll create one for you.

At Make Your Own Video Training Academy, one of our core values is simplicity; we aim to simplify the video making process so that our customers can harness the power of video with ease.

One way we have done this is to break down the journey into four clear stages:Plan, Shoot, Edit and Upload.

In professional film and video production, these stages are referred to as pre-production, production, post-production and delivery – you may have heard these terms before. Let’s take a closer look at what each stage involves.

In the world of video making, there’s no truer cliche than: ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’. Planning is crucial to the outcome and results of every video you make.

First, set your objective. A clear purpose will guide you through the next three stages and give you a benchmark against which to measure results.

Next, know your audience. Learn their key characteristics such as age, location, occupation, social media hangouts and entertainment preferences; this will help you create appropriate and engaging video content. In our handbook, you’ll find guidance on how to build a viewer profile.

Decide on the message, content, structure and script of your video. We have simplified this process by creating a range of templates – we call them our Storyboards – for different types of videos. You’ll find five storyboards in our handbook, and there are more available to purchase on our website.

Contributors: who will appear in your video and how will you deliver your message? There are three common methods of delivery: presentation to camera, interview and voice-over. The way you present each video will depend on your audience’s preferences.

Finally, make sure you have all the necessary filming equipment – such as a suitable mobile device, a tripod and a microphone. You can purchase equipment through our website. You’ll also need to plan the logistics of your shoot such as when and where to film.

Once you’re at the location, set up your equipment and decide which direction you want to shoot; the background might be important to the type of video you’re making.

Set the lighting for the look or mood you want to achieve. It’s best to choose a location with a decent source of natural light, then top up with lamps if necessary. Sound quality is also important. If you’ve chosen a noisy location – too much traffic noise or human activity – it could make for distracting viewing.

If you’ve never presented to camera or conducted a video interview, learn some techniques to get a good performance from your contributor. In our handbook, you’ll find the 10 Ps of presenting and the 10 Is of interviewing.

When you’ve finished filming, backup your footage to a cloud storage solution in case your device becomes lost or stolen before you’ve had chance to edit.

In our experience, some people worry they’ll find this stage difficult, but it’s perfectly possible to use an editing app without any prior technical knowledge. Once you’ve mastered the basic principles of video editing, you can apply these to most consumer editing programmes.

The first step is creating the structure of your video, which involves learning how to trim individual clips and assembling them in the correct order. Once your structure is in place, you can embellish your video by adding transitions, text, effects and music.

In our handbook, we suggest certain editing apps for Apple and Android devices, which are designed for non-professionals. Once you have the foundation knowledge, becoming an accomplished editor is simply a matter of practice.

The final step of the editing stage is to save your video to your device’s gallery as well as to cloud storage, ready to upload it to social media.

Upload your videos to the channels your audience is using. First, set up those channels, and optimise them for searches by adding a title, description and images.

Next, upload your videos, again optimising them by adding a title, description and relevant hashtags. Be aware that some channels favour square and vertical video over traditional widescreen format, so you may need to crop or even re-shoot a video if you want to share it across more than one channel.

If you want to add videos to a website, newsletter, blog or email, upload them to YouTube and share the link from there.

Our handbook, Make Your Own Videos, takes you step by step through these four stages of video making. Get your copy here. It could save you £1000s in professional video production fees.

If you’re new to using video as a marketing tool, you may be wondering how or where to start. Here’s a tip: you need a strategy. A video marketing strategy is like embarking on a journey… an adventure, if you will. Look at video as the vessel that will carry you from here to your destination, picking up passengers along the way. Before you even go any further through this post, I advise you to pack for a voyage, not a short haul. Social media is a vast ocean, and it could be some time before significant numbers of passengers climb aboard.

Here are 5 steps to making that journey as successful as possible.

Set the destination. If you don’t know where you want to go, how will you ever get there? Do you want your business to grow, your charity to raise more funds, your cause to gain more awareness, your service to gain more users, or something else? Plot your coordinates, write it down and display it somewhere prominent so that you and everyone in your team can see it clearly. Whilst individual videos might have different messages, they should all point towards a single destination.

Chart your course. As you take your passengers on the journey, you’ll want to stop off in different ports where they’ll learn something new. What this means in non-nautical terms is making different types of videos for different stages of the journey. Stage one is Awareness: giving viewers an overview of your brand. Stage two is Interest: your viewers want to know a little more detail and how they can benefit. Stage three is Desire: they like it and they want it, so show them practical applications and how others are engaging with your brand. Stage four is Action: they’re waving their cash and may need an extra nudge to hand it over. Finally, stage five is Retention: offer your customers value and show them what else you can do for them. We’ll be posting a new blog on what types of videos to use at different stages of your strategy very soon.

Know your passengers. Would they prefer a 5* cruise ship, a speed boat or an inflatable dinghy? Understanding your viewers is essential for you to give them the right content, in the right style, through the right channels, at the right time.

Use a seaworthy vessel. You wouldn’t take a cruise liner down a canal, nor a narrow boat round the Med. To increase engagement, it’s important to match the style of video to the social media channel on which you plan to share it. For example, longer videos are better on YouTube than on Twitter, and for Instagram it’s best to make them square. Look at the style, length, content and dimensions of videos already on your chosen channels to see which ones are getting the most engagement.

Test and measure. Share your videos and see what results they get. Most channels provide data on the performance of your videos such as number of unique views, how much of your video is being watched (drop-off rate), engagement (like, share, comment etc) and click-through rates (how many viewers click from other links to your video, or from your video to your website). You’ll then need to learn how to interpret this data in relation to your business.

So in short, a video marketing strategy helps you identify your target audience and provide them with relevant engaging content at the right time, in the right places and in a style that suits them. Without a strategy, your video content is like a ship without a rudder, in the middle of the ocean, going round in circles.

Order your copy of our handbook, Make Your Own Videos, to learn more about video marketing for your organisation.